Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Nancy Pelosi And The Student Lending Scam

"It's not often that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi camps under the GOP tent, but that's just what happened recently when she broke ranks with Bay Area Democrats and the Obama administration and voted to keep billions of dollars in federal student aid flowing into the coffers of for-profit colleges.

She had her reasons. Some of the biggest recipients of the $32 billion in federal student loans and Pell Grants each year paid to for-profits are in her district - including major Democratic donor John Sperling, founder of the online University of Phoenix, the nation's largest for-profit college.

The issue arose after Education Secretary Arne Duncan proposed a rule that would stiffen federal aid requirements for for-profits, making them provide stats showing that their students actually are getting the jobs they trained for."

258 comments:

Well, when it comes down to money for your buddies or the well-being of the little guy, what do you expect? Although, it both saddens and angers me how our politicians are so bought and sold by special interests.

I should be used to it by now, but still...they're like junkies. Whatever gets them their next money hit. No matter who ends up paying for it.

Tom Harkin is practically a scam blogger, and Al Franken and Sherrod Brown have both introduced measures to ease the bankruptcy provisions for private student loans (which were an incredible deal for the banks, so no shills crying about the repayments, please).

Of course these measures have no chance of passing, due to industry shills in BOTH parties. Ben Nelson is particularly bad for the Dems, but the GOP are the ones who passed the 2005 requirement that PRIVATE student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy, and they're the ones holding up any chance of reform. (God knows we can't stop govt subsidies to the banks, that would be anti-capitalist).

I hate both parties so much on this issue, but let's not forget who passed and is holding onto the bankruptcy provisions - the GOP.

What's more interested in that this site mentions none of that. It also ignored the push by Senator Boxer to address the fraud that happens with law school employment numbers. One of the reasons I only use this site at this point to go to other scamblogger sites is because of the obvious conservative/Republican leanings of the blog owner. I have no problem with calling Pelosi out on this. But, to pretend (a) that there aren't any Democrats going against the corporate tide and (b) completely ignore there are NO Republicans addressing these issues at all is Congress- well its why some people are still coding documents. They refused to give up cherished beliefs. Tom strikes me as one of those people who was raised or is a Reaganite/faux libertarian type. He allows really bigoted comments to be posted here. That's why others like Nando are quoted while Tom is being ignored. If you want to matter Tom, actually show that you get it by examining both parties and the conservative/corporate swing in this country.

How about the "reforms" the dems passed when they controlled the House, senate and presidency? Did nothing for my student loans. These people are as corrupt as they come. That picutre of Pleosi, larsen and that ugly hag - a rogues gallery!

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"And the banks -- hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created -- are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place," he said on WJJG 1530 AM's "Mornings with Ray Hanania." Progress Illinois picked up the quote.

Remember when U.S. senator Dick Durbin of Illinois made this statement? This was picked up by Salon and a bunch of smaller sites.

For $ome rea$on, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, CNN, et al. did not report on this. (They are all owned by corporate pigs, who are benefiting under the arrangement.) While it is common sense that the banks OWN Congress outright, it should have been MAJOR NEWS that a sitting U.S. senator would have the balls to make such a public statement.

He made this statement back on April 29, 2009 - nearly two years ago. This country is owned by corporate demons. The best us nobodies can do is to continue to publish the truth on our blogs.

I absolutely agree that corporate interest have taken over both parties. That's why I said what I wrote to Tom. The truth is that I have no problem with Tom attacking the Democrats for being corporate shills.

The problem I have with your movement is that there are a lot of people who seem to not get it or connect the dots. There is a larger discussion and debate going on here beyond law school fraud and the dwindling jobs for lawyers. We are just emblematic of that larger fight.

This is a process that's been happening for 40 years now since the Reagan revolution started and its goal of dismantling the FDR/LBJ social democracy trend.

In fact, the educational battles, if you look them up, historically began in the 70s with Reagan in California. It was about that time that education shifted from being a public good (with a value in itself) to a commodity that individuals rather than society as a whole paid for.

People here and else where discuss how we should change the system not through understanding that it is a system, but arguments over cutting student loans. Student loans predate the education bubble. The real problem is not loans. The real problem is that education is a business now.

But, we aren't suppose to say that the e are more important things in life than business. So, the bank take over is natural from that mindset where private business, in the eyes of some, can do no wrong.

Everyone ends up tailoring their arguments to fit that believe. We have Obama pass what is essentially a Romney and Bob Dole's health care proposals in that it enshrines our system as run by corporate health care, and we have people whining about socialism. Its unreal. The problem is not socialism. The problem is that we view everything now as about business.

I always have argued that there are a core basket of issues that are not about business- education, healthcare, housing , retirement. Everything else can be about business, but those 4 have greater societal issues at play. But, again we aren't suppose to say that.

Instead, people tweak around the edges. I believe your points about education fraud is important. But, you need to ask a deeper question: Why is the fraud happening? individual greed is an easy one to identify as the reason. But what about the system allows the greedy to get away with it?

Why aren't more people angry amongst those who are not profiting from the education industrial complex? Why aren't they doing more about it?

All these programs: Social Security, medicare, bankruptcy reform are revolution insurance. The right-wing/ teabaggers/ republicans don't want to pay the premium. When it gets bad enough or enough of the American public won't take anymore there will be blood. it will be in less than a decade.

Dianne Feinstein's husband is also heavily invested in the for profit scam. Tying loan limits to gainful employment like the Dept. of Education is proposing will be dead on arrival. The lobbyists have been working overtime in the last several months handing out dinners and schmoozing on the Hill, while you dopes whine on blogs.

We KNOW that the banks own Congress, as well as most state houses and city councils across this land.

"The lobbyists have been working overtime in the last several months handing out dinners and schmoozing on the Hill, while you dopes whine on blogs."

By the way, I am doing what I can, by informing others - which you idiotically refer to as "whining." Your little "contribution" is nothing. Really?!?! Well-heeled lobbyists are working the pigs in Congress?! You should win a George Foster Peabody Award for such surgical precision, in investigative journalism. What great insight!

The $y$tem is rigged, and always has been in this country. You think Jefferson, Washington, Hamilton, Adams, Madison - and the other wealthy pigs - fought for the rights of the common man?!?! They wanted to wrest control of the colonies from wealthy British swine.

Look at the Electoral College. You guys are casting votes to select a set of presidential "Electors." These people then cast actual ballots for president. (By the way, these supposed "presidents" are mere hand-puppets of the corporate elite.) Even with this system, a voter only participates once every 2, 4 or 6 years - while the lobbyists are BUYING "lawmakers" from *the moment* they are elected, or announce they are running for office.

Good luck competing with that. See how successful you will be operating under “their” system. It is for their benefit, NOT yours. The legal industry is a great example of this. Courtrooms are conservative in nature, and they abide by prior rulings – under the guise of “precedent.” One is supposed to use euphemisms, staid language, and conduct themselves in an “appropriate” manner. Yeah, you can take on the powerful – but you MUST play by their rules, use their lingo/jargon, and agree to the results.

This is akin to a high school team agreeing to play the LA Lakers at the Staples Center - with officials that love the Lakers. Think you’ll have a shot in hell of winning?

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Tom deleted my comment, which tells us a lot about Tom. let's see does he delete the comment pointing out that he's now editing out comments of substance while leaving comments that are racist. You are nothing if not predictable Tom.

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Nancy Pelosi is the most hypocritical politician to occupy a national office during my lifetime. Given that I lived through the administrations of Nixon (Grante, I was a child then.) and Bush II--and lived in New York when Ed Koch was mayor--that's saying something.

No form of mendacity surprises me when it comes from her. The day she led the hue and cry for the Iraq invasion, I knew what she was about. And I knew we were fucked. Really fucked.

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I should have listened to my parents & should have taken the civil service exams, I could have become a fireman straight outta high school w/ 10 years of service under my belt, HIGHER EDUCATION IS A SCAM EXPENSIVE ISOLATION FROM SOCIETY DAMN YOU SALLIE MAE!!

Well looks like comments are still being posted, so the site isn't totally dead.

A lot of the scam blogs seem to be dying now. That could mean most people are actually beginning to do well again, or it could mean people feel everyone knows the message now so there's no need to keep posting.

Tom the Temp was a cool site. But now there isn't any temp work, so there's no point in maintaining the site. Plus, I think everyone gets the joke. Not that ruined lives are a joke. But people have moved on or given up.

Most people use educational loans for upward social mobility, and without student loans, only the wealthy can afford higher education. The lenders are not responsible for students who do not do their due diligence to see if they have the skills to crash a flooded market.

I guess it is my fault: if I hadn't inflated your grades, you wouldn't have though the world was your oyster. But your parents complained, and I just can't have any flies on my ass.

Yep, looks like you losers finally got the message. Get out while you still got blood pumping though yer veins. While you bitches have been moaning I made a couple more million. Sucked a lot of dick and even offered my behind several times. Yessiree Bob, even us privileged white folk have to be buggered now and then. At least I got some dough to put as a balm on my humiliation. Tally ho, pip, pip and cheerio....

The big problem with looking at the financial payoff from for profit colleges is that this might lead to examining the cost benefit ratio of many programs at traditional non profit schools. Many of them, often state run, promote programs that have less chance of any worthwhile result then the worst truck driver and medical assistant program. J. England

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Carla couldn't find work in the legal profession, so she's dancing in a topless bar now.By Bob SullivanWhen Carla graduated 10 years ago, she thought her law degree would be a permanent ticket to a high-paying job. But instead of selling her mind, Carla is selling her body. After student loans, debt, a layoff and unemployment battered her bank account, she now finds herself in an almost unbelievable position – dancing in a topless bar.

"Did I ever think I’d be taking my top off for rent money? No. I was in my mid-30s and had never danced before," said Carla, who asked that we use her stage name and withhold her identity and some personal details. "As a little girl, I never thought to myself, 'I just want to grow up and be a stripper,’ or, ‘All I ever wanted to do in life is climb in the lap of sweaty stranger and take my top off.'

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Carla grew up in the Midwest and moved to the West Coast in the late ‘90s to fulfill her dream of earning her law degree. After graduation, she worked for nine years putting her degree to use, but she had entered the crowded legal profession at the wrong time. When she was laid off in 2009, she couldn't find work.

"At first, I worked as a waitress, and a cashier in gas station," she said.

'Act of desperation'As her prospects grew dim, she went back to school to earn a master’s degree, hoping to bolster her credentials. But her financial aid came in lower than expected, her credit was battered and she struggled to find part-time work in her new town to keep her afloat.

"I went around to see if could get a job as cocktail waitress, but there was not a single retail or waitress job. No one was hiring, except for the topless places," she said. “It was an act of desperation.”

She started out serving drinks as a waitress, but moved quickly to dancing "because that's where the money is, and that's what I needed."

On an average day, she earns $20 an hour, but on a good weekend night, she might pull in $50 an hour –enough to get her finances back on track. She can set her own hours, which means she can squeeze in reading and writing papers around her work schedule.

Sometimes it sucks, it’s degrading and I hate it, but it is necessary right now and I’m glad I have the option of doing it," Carla said. "My parents and a few friends know and they were horrified at first. But now they are proud of me for sucking it up and doing what I have to do."

Carla has her limits, as does the topless bar she works in. She stays away from private rooms even though women can make $500 to $1,000 a night there.

Local rules allow lap dances – as long as the patrons don’t touch the dancers – and Carla sometimes performs them. The bar doesn't have a full nudity license, and that’s just as well with Carla; she'd need a personal license to work at a place like that and she wants no record of her temporary stint in the dancing business.

Pat Shannahan for msnbc.com

Carla hopes she'll be finished with dancing in about six months."While I am proud of making a living by any legal means available to me, I realize that some will think of me as just a glorified legal prostitute and I would very much like to move on with my life and career at the earliest available opportunity," she said.

Ugly momentsDespite these precautions, Carla said she has had her share of ugly moments. Not all men follow the rules; some have tried to overpower her and “grab her, bite her, kiss her, or get their hands under the bottoms (I) wear.” Bouncers come to her aid, but they can't be everywhere all the time.

"I've had men overcome me," she said. "Luckily help has arrived and nothing has happened. But I have been scared."

Carla agreed to talk about her experience in part because she said it has been profound – in one sense, the job is less hostile than any law office she’s worked in, she said. Coming from the cutthroat legal profession, she has been stunned by the camaraderie among the women she works with.

"I thought the other women I worked with would be competitive and not supportive. We are 'fighting' over the same dollars," she said. "But my female coworkers are the best coworkers I've ever had."

Many are in the same situation she is, she said: forced by their economic situation to perform work they would have never considered in the past.

"I work with war widows, a nurse, a med student, women who have had to go to work to save their home after their husbands have lost their jobs, and others who do this as a means to an end and who do not fit the profile of junkie/prostitute/dancer. … What we all have in common is being in a tight spot financially and living in an economy that provides limited options right now, " she said. "I'd be willing to bet that there are women like me working in it all over the country, out of necessity and not because our goal in life was to appear topless in front of … creepy guys."

She's also been horrified by the way dancers are treated by some men she encounters.

advertisementadvertisementadvertisement'Some real creeps'"I was shocked at how horribly

Please, what is this nonsense about Carla - lawyer turned topless dancer? This wench probably always wanted to be a stripper. Go work in Dunkin Donuts for chrissake...the lies these chicks come up to justify their tawdry ways.

I think Tom must have gotten a job with the Obama administration, and therefore is not allowed to run a blog. It is sad how people abandon others so easily in our society. Still, if Obama loses we will have Tom back in 16 months. So, there is some HOPE for us yet.

What are these people doing working for premier law firms? Thye can't even speak proper English - while perfectly decent hard-working types are unemployed? I guess you have to belong to the ghetto staff attorney mafia at these firms.

Pelosi needs to just go away. She and her hubby have been cheating the system for about 150 years by the look of her. She has done nothing for my student loans and takes credit for making everything great They are corrupt and are living large on our money.

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